^ The Faroes, Greenland and Iceland were Norwegian possessions until 1814, as Norway was united with Denmark.

^ The currency, printed with Faroese motifs, is issued at par with the Danish krone, uses the same sizes and standards as Danish coins and banknotes and incorporates the same security features. Faroese krónur (singular króna) share the Danish ISO 4217 code "DKK".

The Faroes' terrain is rugged, and the islands have a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc): windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Despite this island group's northerly latitude, temperatures average above freezing throughout the year because of the Gulf Stream.

Between 1035 and 1814, the Faroes were part of the Hereditary Kingdom of Norway. In 1814, the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the islands, along with two other Norwegian island possessions: Greenland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948.[11] The Faroese have control of most domestic matters. Areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, the policing, the justice department, currency and foreign affairs.[12] However, as they are not part of the same customs area as Denmark, the Faroe Islands have an independent trade policy and can establish trade agreements with other states. The islands also have representation in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation. The Faroe Islands also have their own national teams competing in certain sports.

In Faroese, the name appears as Føroyar. Oyar represents the plural of oy, older Faroese for "island". Due to sound changes, the modern Faroese word for island is oyggj. The first element, før, may reflect an Old Norse word fær (sheep), alhough this analysis is sometimes disputed because Faroese now uses the word seyður (from Old Norse sauðr) to mean "sheep". Another possibility is that the Irish monks, who settled the island around 625, had already given the islands a name related to the Celtic word fearrann, meaning "land" or "estate". This name could then have been passed on to the Norwegian settlers, who then added oyar (islands).[13] The name thus translates as either "islands of sheep" or "islands of Fearrann".

In Danish, the name Færøerne contains the same elements, though øerne is the definite plural of ø (island).

In English, it may be seen as redundant to call them the Faroe Islands, since the oe comes from an element meaning "island". The name is also sometimes spelled "Faeroe".[14][15] Most notably in the Shipping Forecast, where the waters around the islands are called Faeroes.

Archaeological evidence shows settlers living on the Faroe Islands in two successive periods prior to the arrival of the Norse, the first between 300 and 600 AD and the second between 600 and 800 AD. [16] Scientists from the University of Aberdeen have also found early cereal pollen from domesticated plants, which further suggests people may have lived on the islands before the Vikings arrived.[17] Archaeologist Mike Church noted that Dicuil (see below) mentioned what may have been the Faroes. He also suggested that the people living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia, possibly with groups from all three areas settling there.[18]

A Latin account of a voyage made by Brendan, an Irish monastic saint who lived around 484–578, includes a description of insulae (islands) resembling the Faroe Islands. This association, however, is far from conclusive in its description.[19]

Dicuil, an Irish monk of the early 9th century, wrote a more definite account. In his geographical work De mensura orbis terrae he claimed he had reliable information of heremitae ex nostra Scotia ("hermits from our land of Ireland/Scotland") who had lived on the northerly islands of Britain for almost a hundred years until the arrival of Norse pirates.[20]

Norsemen settled the islands c. 800, bringing Old West Norse, which evolved into the modern Faroese language. According to Icelandic sagas such as Færeyjar Saga, one of the best known men in the island was Tróndur í Gøtu, a descendant of Scandinavian chiefs who had settled in Dublin, Ireland. Tróndur led the battle against Sigmund Brestursson, the Norwegian monarchy and the Norwegian church.

The Norse and Norse–Gael settlers probably did not come directly from Scandinavia, but rather from Norse communities surrounding the Irish Sea, Northern Isles and Outer Hebrides of Scotland, including the Shetland and Orkney islands. A traditional name for the islands in Irish, Na Scigirí, possibly refers to the (Eyja-)Skeggjar "(Island-)Beards", a nickname given to island dwellers.

According to the Færeyinga saga, more emigrants left Norway who did not approve of the monarchy of Harald Fairhair (ruled c. 872 to 930). These people settled the Faroes around the end of the 9th century.[21] Early in the 11th century, Sigmundur Brestisson (961–1005) – whose clan had flourished in the southern islands before invaders from the northern islands almost exterminated it – escaped to Norway. He was sent back to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway from 995 to 1000. Sigmundur introduced Christianity, forcing Tróndur í Gøtu to convert or face beheading and, though Sigmundur was subsequently murdered, Norwegian taxation was upheld. Norwegian control of the Faroes continued until 1814, although, when the Kingdom of Norway (872–1397) entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark, it gradually resulted in Danish control of the islands. The Reformation reached the Faroes in 1538. When the union between Denmark and Norway dissolved as a result of the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Denmark retained possession of the Faroe Islands; Norway itself was joined in a union with Sweden.

As part of Mercantilism, Denmark maintained a monopoly over trade with the Faroe Islands and forbade their inhabitants trading with others (e.g. the geographically close Britain). The trade monopoly in the Faroe Islands was abolished in 1856, after which the area developed as a modern fishing nation with its own fishing fleet. The national awakening from 1888 initially arose from a struggle to maintain the Faroese language and was thus culturally oriented, but after 1906 it became more political with the foundation of political parties of the Faroe Islands.

The Faroese independence referendum, 1946 resulted in 50.73% in favor of independence to 49.27% against.[22] The Faroe Islands subsequently declared independence on 18 September 1946; however, this declaration was annulled by Denmark on 20 September on the grounds that a majority of the Faroese voters had not supported independence and King Christian X of Denmark dissolved the Faroese Løgting on 24 September.[23][24] The dissolution of the Løgting was on 8 November followed by the Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 in which the parties in favour of full independence received a total of 5,396 votes while the parties against received a total of 7,488 votes.[25] As a reaction to the growing self-government and independence movements, Denmark finally granted the Faroe Islands home-rule with a high degree of local autonomy on 30 March 1948.[23]

In 1973 the Faroe Islands declined to join Denmark in entering the European Economic Community (later absorbed into the European Union). The islands experienced considerable economic difficulties following the collapse of the fishing industry in the early 1990s, but have since made efforts to diversify the economy. Support for independence has grown and is the objective of the Republican Party.

The islands cover an area of 1,399 square kilometres (540 sq. mi) and have small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres (694 mi) of coastline.[26] The only significant uninhabited island is Lítla Dímun.

The climate is classed as subpolar oceanic climate according to the Köppen climate classification: Cfc, with areas having a tundra climate, especially in the mountains, although some coastal or low-lying areas can have very mild-winter versions of a tundra climate. The overall character of the islands' climate is influenced by the strong warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, which produces the North Atlantic Current. This, together with the remoteness of any source of warm airflows, ensures that winters are mild (mean temperature 3.0 to 4.0 °C or 37 to 39 °F) while summers are cool (mean temperature 9.5 to 10.5 °C or 49 to 51 °F).

The islands are windy, cloudy and cool throughout the year with an average of 210 rainy or snowy days per year. The islands lie in the path of depressions moving northeast, making strong winds and heavy rain possible at all times of the year. Sunny days are rare and overcast days are common. Hurricane Faith struck the Faroe Islands on 5 September 1966 with sustained winds over 100 mph (160 km/h) and only then did the storm cease to be a tropical system.[28]

The climate varies greatly over small distances, due to the altitude, ocean currents, topography and winds. Precipitation varies considerably throughout the archipelago. In some highland areas, snow cover can last for months with snowfalls possible for the greater part of the year (on the highest peaks, summer snowfall is by no means rare), while in some sheltered coastal locations, several years pass without any snowfall whatsoever. Tórshavn receives frosts more often than other areas just a short distance to the south. Snow is also seen at a much higher frequency than on outlying islands nearby. The area receives on average 49 frosts a year.[29]

The collection of meteorological data on the Faroe Islands began in 1867.[30] Winter recording began in 1891, and the warmest winter occurred in 2016-17 with an average temperature of 6.1 °C.[31]

A collection of Faroese marine algae resulting from a survey sponsored by NATO,[citation needed]the British Museum (Natural History) and the Carlsberg Foundation, is preserved in the Ulster Museum (catalogue numbers: F3195–F3307). It is one of ten exsiccatae sets.

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) is common in the Faroe Islands during May and June.

The natural vegetation of the Faroe Islands is dominated by arctic-alpine plants, wildflowers, grasses, moss and lichen. Most of the lowland area is grassland and some is heath, dominated by shrubby heathers, mainly Calluna vulgaris. Among the herbaceous flora that occur in the Faroe Islands is the cosmopolitan marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre.[35]

Only a few species of wild land mammals are found in the Faroe Islands today, all introduced by humans. Three species are thriving on the islands today: mountain hare (Lepus timidus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), and the house mouse (Mus musculus). Apart from these, there once was a local domestic sheep breed, the Faroe sheep (depicted on the coat of arms), a variety of feral sheep survived on Lítla Dímun until the mid-19th century.[37]

Faroese sheep

Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are common around the shorelines.[citation needed] Several species of cetacea live in the waters around the Faroe Islands. Best known are the long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melaena), which are still hunted by the islanders in accordance with longstanding local tradition.[38]Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are regular visitors around the islands.

The Faroese government holds executive power in local government affairs. The head of the government is called the Løgmaður ("Law person") and serves as a premier. Any other member of the cabinet is called a landsstýrismaður ("national committee man") or landsstýriskvinna ("national committee woman"). The Faroese parliament – the Løgting ("Law assembly") – dates back to Viking times and is believed to be one of the oldest parliaments in the world. The parliament currently has 33 members.[39]

In contemporary times, elections are held at municipal, national (Løgting) and Danish (Folketing) levels. Until 2007, there were seven electoral districts, each comprising a sýsla, while Streymoy was divided into a northern and southern part (Tórshavn region). However, on 25 October 2007, changes were made such that the entire country is one electoral district, giving each vote equal weight.

Traditionally, there are also the six sýslur (similar to the British "shire": Norðoyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vágar, Sandoy, and Suðuroy). Although today sýsla technically means "police district", the term is still commonly used to indicate a geographical region. In earlier times, each sýsla had its own assembly, the so-called várting ("spring assembly").

The Faroe Islands have been under Norwegian/Danish control since 1388. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel terminated the Danish-Norwegian union, and Norway came under the rule of the King of Sweden, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland remained Danish possessions. From ancient times the Faroe Islands had a parliament (Løgting) which was abolished in 1816, and the Faroe Islands were to be governed as an ordinary Danish amt (county), with the Amtmand as its head of government. In 1851, the Løgting was reinstated, but, until 1948, served mainly as an advisory body.

The islands are home to a notable independence movement that has seen an increase in popularity within recent decades. At the end of World War II, some of the population favoured independence from Denmark, and on 14 September 1946 an independence referendum was held on the question of secession. It was a consultative referendum; the parliament was not bound to follow the people's vote. This was the first time that the Faroese people had been asked whether they favoured independence or wanted to continue within the Danish kingdom.

The result of the vote was a narrow majority in favour of secession, but the coalition in parliament could not reach agreement on how this outcome should be interpreted and implemented; and because of these irresoluble differences, the coalition fell apart. A parliamentary election was held a few months later, in which the political parties that favoured staying in the Danish kingdom increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition. Based on this, they chose to reject secession. Instead, a compromise was made and the Folketing passed a home-rule law that went into effect in 1948. The Faroe Islands' status as a Danish amt was thereby brought to an end; the Faroe Islands were given a high degree of self-governance, supported by a financial subsidy from Denmark to recompense expenses the islands have on Danish services.

At present, the islanders are about evenly split between those favouring independence and those who prefer to continue as a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Within both camps there is a wide range of opinions. Of those who favour independence, some are in favour of an immediate unilateral declaration of independence. Others see it as something to be attained gradually and with the full consent of the Danish government and the Danish nation. In the unionist camp there are also many who foresee and welcome a gradual increase in autonomy even while strong ties with Denmark are maintained.

As of 2011[update], a new draft Faroese constitution is being drawn up. However the draft has been declared by the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, as incompatible with Denmark's constitution and if the Faroese political parties wish to continue with it then they must declare independence.[40]

As explicitly asserted by both treaties of the European Union, the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union. The Faroes are not grouped with the EU when it comes to international trade; for instance, when the EU and Russia imposed reciprocal trade sanctions on each other over the War in Donbass in 2014, the Faroes began exporting significant amounts of fresh salmon to Russia.[41] Moreover, a protocol to the treaty of accession of Denmark to the European Communities stipulates that Danish nationals residing in the Faroe Islands are not considered Danish nationals within the meaning of the treaties. Hence, Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union (though other EU nationals living there remain EU citizens). The Faroes are not covered by the Schengen Agreement, but there are no border checks when travelling between the Faroes and any Schengen country (the Faroes have been part of the Nordic Passport Union since 1966, and since 2001 there have been no permanent border checks between the Nordic countries and the rest of the Schengen Area as part of the Schengen agreement).[42]

The Faroe Islands are not a fully independent country, but they do have political relations directly with other countries through agreement with Denmark. The Faroe Islands are a member of some international organisations as though they were an independent country.

The Faroe Islands are a member of several international sports federations like UEFA, FIFA in football[43] and FINA in swimming[44] and EHF in handball[45] and have their own national teams. The Faroe Islands have their own telephone country code, Internet country code top-level domain, banking code and postal country code.

The Faroe Islands make their own agreements with other countries regarding trade and commerce. When the EU embargo against Russia started in 2014, the Faroe Islands were not a part of the embargo because they are not a part of EU, and the islands had just themselves experienced a year of embargo from the EU including Denmark against the islands; the Faroese prime minister Kaj Leo Johannesen went to Moscow to negotiate the trade between the two countries.[10] The Faroese minister of fisheries negotiates with the EU and other countries regarding the rights to fish.[46]

There is a gender deficit of about 2,000 women owing to migration.[50] Three hundred women from the Philippines and Thailand, recruited as wives because of the Faroes' gender imbalance, make up the largest ethnic minority in the Faroes.[50]

The 2011 census shows that of the approximately 48,600 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (17,441 private households in 2011), 43,135 were born in the Faroe Islands, 3,597 were born in the other two countries of the Kingdom of Denmark (Denmark or Greenland), and 1,614 were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. People were also asked about their nationality, including Faroese. Children under 15 were not asked about their nationality. 97% said that they were ethnic Faroese, which means that many of those who were born in either Denmark or Greenland consider themselves as ethnic Faroese. The other 3% of those older than 15 said they were not Faroese: 515 were Danish, 433 were from other European countries, 147 came from Asia, 65 from Africa, 55 from the Americas, 23 from Russia.[53] The Faroe Islands have people from 77 different nationalities.

Faroese stamp by Anker Eli Petersen commemorating the arrival of Christianity in the islands

If the first inhabitants of the Faroe Islands were Irish monks, then they must have lived as a very small group of settlers. Later, when the Vikings colonised the islands, there was a considerable increase in the population. However, it never exceeded 5,000 until the 19th century. Around 1349, about half the population perished in the Black Death plague.

Only with the rise of the deep-sea fishery (and thus independence from agriculture in the islands' harsh terrain) and with general progress in the health service was rapid population growth possible in the Faroes. Beginning in the 19th century, the population increased tenfold in 200 years.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Faroe Islands entered a deep economic crisis leading to heavy emigration; however, this trend reversed in subsequent years to a net immigration. This has been in the form of a population replacement as young Faroese women leave and are replaced with Asian/Pacific brides.[54] In 2011, there were 2,155 more men than women between the age of 0 to 59 in the Faroe Islands.[55]

The Faroese population is spread across most of the area; it was not until recent decades that significant urbanisation occurred. Industrialisation has been remarkably decentralised, and the area has therefore maintained quite a viable rural culture. Nevertheless, villages with poor harbour facilities have been the losers in the development from agriculture to fishing, and in the most peripheral agricultural areas, also known as Útoyggjar "Outer Islands", there are few young people. In recent decades, the village-based social structure has nevertheless been placed under pressure, giving way to a rise in interconnected "centres" that are better able to provide goods and services than the badly connected periphery. This means that shops and services are now relocating en masse from the villages into the centres, and slowly but steadily the Faroese population is concentrating in and around the centres.

In the 1990s, the government abandoned the old national policy of developing the villages (Bygdamenning), and instead began a process of regional development (Økismenning). The term "region" referred to the large islands of the Faroes. Nevertheless, the government was unable to press through the structural reform of merging small rural municipalities to create sustainable, decentralised entities that could drive forward regional development. As regional development has been difficult on the administrative level, the government has instead invested heavily in infrastructure, interconnecting the regions.

In general, it is becoming less valid to regard the Faroes as a society based on separate islands and regions. The huge investments in roads, bridges and sub-sea tunnels (see also Transport in the Faroe Islands) have bound the islands together, creating a coherent economic and cultural sphere that covers almost 90% of the population. From this perspective it is reasonable to regard the Faroes as a dispersed city or even to refer to it as the Faroese Network City.[citation needed]

Faroese is spoken in the entire area as a first language. It is difficult to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language, because many ethnic Faroese live in Denmark, and few who are born there return to the Faroes with their parents or as adults.

The Faroese language is one of the smallest of the Germanic languages. Written Faroese (grammar and vocabulary) is most similar to Icelandic and to their ancestor Old Norse, though the spoken language is closer to Norwegian dialects of Western Norway. Faroese is the first official language of the island while Danish, the second, is taught in schools and can be used by the Faroese government in public relations.[1]

Faroese language policy provides for the active creation of new terms in Faroese suitable for modern life.

According to the Færeyinga saga, Sigmundur Brestisson brought Christianity to the islands in 999. However, archaeology at a site in Toftanes, Leirvík named Bønhústoftin (English: prayer-house ruin) and over a dozen slabs from Ólansgarður in the small island of Skúvoy which in the main display encircled linear and outline crosses, suggest that Celtic Christianity may have arrived at least 150 years earlier.[56] The Faroe Islands' Church Reformation was completed on 1 January 1540. According to official statistics from 2002, 84.1% of the Faroese population are members of the state church, the Church of the Faroe Islands (Fólkakirkjan), a form of Lutheranism. The Fólkakirkjan became an independent church in 2007; previously it had been a diocese within the Church of Denmark. Faroese members of the clergy who have had historical importance include Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (1819–1909), Fríðrikur Petersen (1853–1917) and, perhaps most significantly, Jákup Dahl (1878–1944), who had a great influence in ensuring that the Faroese language was spoken in the church instead of Danish. Participation in churches is more prevalent among the Faroese population than among most other Scandinavians.

In the late 1820s, the Christian Evangelical religious movement, the Plymouth Brethren, was established in England. In 1865, a member of this movement, William Gibson Sloan, travelled to the Faroes from Shetland. At the turn of the 20th century, the Faroese Plymouth Brethren numbered thirty. Today, around 10% of the Faroese population are members of the Open Brethren community (Brøðrasamkoman). About 3% belong to the Charismatic Movement. There are several charismatic churches around the islands, the largest of which, called Keldan (The Spring), has about 200 to 300 members. About 2% belong to other Christian groups. The Adventists operate a private school in Tórshavn. Jehovah's Witnesses also have four congregations with a total of 121 members. The Roman Catholic congregation has about 170 members and falls under the jurisdiction of Denmark's Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen. The municipality of Tórshavn has an old Franciscan school.

There are also around fifteen Bahá'ís who meet at four different places. The Ahmadiyyas established a community in the Faroe Islands in 2010. Unlike Denmark, Sweden and Iceland with Forn Siðr, the Faroes have no organised Heathen community.

In 1948, Victor Danielsen (Plymouth Brethren) completed the first Bible translation into Faroese from different modern languages. Jacob Dahl and Kristian Osvald Viderø (Fólkakirkjan) completed the second translation in 1961. The latter was translated from the original Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) into Faroese.

The levels of education in the Faroe Islands are primary, secondary and higher education. Most institutions are funded by the state; there are few private schools in the country. Education is compulsory for 9 years between the ages of 7 and 16.[58]

Compulsory education consists of seven years of primary education and two years of lower secondary education; it is public, free of charge, provided by the respective municipalities, and is called the Fólkaskúli in Faroese. The Fólkaskúli also provides optional preschool education as well as the tenth year of education that is a prerequisite to get admitted to upper secondary education. Students that complete compulsory education are allowed to continue education in a vocational school, where they can have job-specific training and education. Since the fishing industry is an important part of country's economy, maritime schools are an important part of Faroese education. Upon completion of the tenth year of Fólkaskúli, students can continue to upper secondary education which consists of several different types of schools. Higher education is offered at the University of the Faroe Islands; a part of Faroese youth moves abroad to pursue higher education, mainly in Denmark. Other forms of education comprise adult education and music schools. The structure of the Faroese educational system bears resemblances with its Danish counterpart.[58]

In the 12th century, education was provided by the Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands.[59] The Church of Denmark took over education after the Protestant Reformation.[60] Modern educational institutions started operating in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and developed throughout the twentieth century. The status of the Faroese language in education was a significant issue for decades, until it was accepted as a language of instruction in 1938.[61] Initially education was administered and regulated by Denmark.[61] In 1979 responsibilities on educational issues started transferring to the Faroese authorities, a procedure which was completed in 2002.[61]

The Ministry of Education, Research and Culture has the jurisdiction of educational responsibility in the Faroe Islands.[62] Since the Faroe Islands is a constituent country of the Danish Realm, education in the Faroe Islands is influenced and has similarities with the Danish educational system; there is an agreement on educational cooperation between the Faroe Islands and Denmark.[61][63][64] In 2012 the public spending on education was 8.1% of GDP.[65] The municipalities are responsible for the school buildings for children's education in Fólkaskúlin from age 1st grade to 9th or 10th grade (age 7 to 16).[66] In November 2013 1,615 people, or 6.8% of the total number of employees, were employed in the education sector.[65] Of the 31,270 people aged 25 and above 1,717 (5.5%) have gained at least a master's degrees or a Ph.D., 8,428 (27%) have gained a B.Sc. or a diploma, 11,706 (37.4%) have finished upper secondary education while 9,419 (30.1%) has only finished primary school and have no other education.[67] There is no data on literacy in the Faroe Islands, but the CIA Factbook states that it is probably as high as in Denmark proper, i.e. 99%.[68]

The majority of students in upper secondary schools are women, although men represent the majority in higher education institutions. In addition, most young Faroese people who relocate to other countries to study are women.[69] Out of 8,535 holders of bachelor degrees, 4,796 (56.2%) have had their education in the Faroe Islands, 2,724 (31.9%) in Denmark, 543 in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 94 (1.1%) in Norway, 80 in the United Kingdom and the rest in other countries.[70] Out of 1,719 holders of master's degrees or PhDs, 1,249 (72.7% have had their education in Denmark, 87 (5.1%) in the United Kingdom, 86 (5%) in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 64 (3.7%) in the Faroe Islands, 60 (3.5%) in Norway and the rest in other countries (mostly EU and Nordic).[70] Since there is no medical school in the Faroe Islands, all medical students have to study abroad; as of 2013[update], out of a total of 96 medical students, 76 studied in Denmark, 19 in Poland, and 1 in Hungary.[71]

Economic troubles caused by a collapse of the Faroese fishing industry in the early 1990s brought high unemployment rates of 10 to 15% by the mid-1990s.[72] Unemployment decreased in the later 1990s, down to about 6% at the end of 1998.[72] By June 2008 unemployment had declined to 1.1%, before rising to 3.4% in early 2009.[72] In December 2014[73] the unemployment was 3.2%. Nevertheless, the almost total dependence on fishing and fish farming means that the economy remains vulnerable. One of the biggest private companies of the Faroe Islands is the salmon farming company Bakkafrost, which is the largest of the four salmon farming companies in the Faroe Islands[74] and the eighth biggest in the world.[75]

Klaksvík, on the island of Borðoy, is the Faroe Islands' second-largest town.

Petroleum found close to the Faroese area gives hope for deposits in the immediate area, which may provide a basis for sustained economic prosperity.[76]

13% of the Faroe Islands' national income comes as economic aid from Denmark.[77] This corresponds to roughly 5% of GDP.[78]

Since 2000, the government has fostered new information technology and business projects to attract new investment. The introduction of Burger King in Tórshavn was widely publicized as a sign of the globalization of Faroese culture. It remains to be seen whether these projects will succeed in broadening the islands' economic base. The islands have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, but this should not necessarily be taken as a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries after leaving high school. This leaves a largely middle-aged and elderly population that may lack the skills and knowledge to fill newly developed positions on the Faroes. Nonetheless, in 2008 the Faroes were able to make a $52 million loan to Iceland to help with that country's banking woes.[79]

On 5 August 2009, two opposition parties introduced a bill in the Løgting to adopt the euro as the national currency, pending a referendum.[80]

Because of the rocky terrain in the Faroe Islands, its road transport system was not[when?] as extensive as in other places of the world. This situation has now changed, and the infrastructure has been developed extensively. Some 80 percent of the population of the islands is connected by tunnels through the mountains and between the islands, bridges and causeways that link the three largest islands and three other larger and smaller islands to the northeast together. While the other two large islands to the south of the main area, Sandoy and Suðuroy, are connected to the main area with ferries, the small islands Koltur and Stóra Dímun have no ferry connection, only helicopter service. Other small islands—Mykines in the west, Kalsoy, Svínoy and Fugloy in the north, Hestur west of Streymoy, and Nólsoy east of Tórshavn—have smaller ferries and some of these islands even have helicopter service. In February 2014 all the political parties of the Løgting agreed on making two subsea tunnels, one between Streymoy and Eysturoy (the Eysturoyartunnilin) and one between Streymoy and Sandoy (Sandoyartunnilin). The plan is that both tunnels should open in 2021 and they will not be private.[82] The work to dig the Eysturoy-tunnel started on 1 March 2016 above the village of Hvítanes near Tórshavn.[83]

The culture of the Faroe Islands has its roots in the Nordic culture. The Faroe Islands were long isolated from the main cultural phases and movements that swept across parts of Europe. This means that they have maintained a great part of their traditional culture. The language spoken is Faroese and it is one of three insular North Germanic languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese. Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1538, the ruling Norwegians outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. Although a rich spoken tradition survived, for 300 years the language was not written down. This means that all poems and stories were handed down orally. These works were split into the following divisions: sagnir (historical), ævintýr (stories) and kvæði (ballads), often set to music and the medieval chain dance. These were eventually written down in the 19th century.

Faroese written literature has only really developed in the past 100–200 years. This is mainly because of the islands' isolation, and also because the Faroese language was not written down in a standardised format until 1890. The Danish language was also encouraged at the expense of Faroese. Nevertheless, the Faroes have produced several authors and poets. A rich centuries-old oral tradition of folk tales and Faroese folk songs accompanied the Faroese chain dance. The people learned these songs and stories by heart, and told or sung them to each other, teaching the younger generations too. This kind of literature was gathered in the 19th century and early 20th century. The Faroese folk songs, in Faroese called kvæði, are still in use although not so large-scale as earlier. Some of the Faroese folk songs have been used by the Faroese Viking metal band Týr, i.e., Ormurin Langi.[84]

The first Faroese novel, Bábelstornið by Regin í Líð, was published in 1909; the second novel was published 18 years later. In the period 1930 to 1940 a writer from the village Skálavík on Sandoy island, Heðin Brú, published three novels: Lognbrá (1930), Fastatøkur (1935) and Feðgar á ferð (English title: The old man and his sons) (1940). Feðgar á ferð has been translated into several other languages. Martin Joensen from Sandvík wrote about life on Faroese fishing vessels; he published the novels Fiskimenn (1946)[85] and Tað lýsir á landi (1952).

Women were not so visible in the early Faroese literature except for Helena Patursson (1864–1916), but in the last decades of the 20th century and in the beginning of the 21st century female writers like Ebba Hentze (born 1933) wrote children's books, short stories, etc. Guðrið Helmsdal published the first modernistic collection of poems, Lýtt lot, in 1963, which at the same time was the first collection of Faroese poems written by a woman.[91] Her daughter, Rakel Helmsdal (born 1966), is also a writer, best known for her children's books, for which she has won several prizes and nominations. Other female writers are the novelists Oddvør Johansen (born 1941), Bergtóra Hanusardóttir (born 1946) and novelist/children's books writers Marianna Debes Dahl (born 1947), and Sólrun Michelsen (born 1948). Other modern Faroese writers include Gunnar Hoydal (born 1941), Hanus Kamban (born 1942), Jógvan Isaksen (born 1950), Jóanes Nielsen (born 1953), Tóroddur Poulsen and Carl Jóhan Jensen (born 1957). Some of these writers have been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize two to six times, but have never won it. The only Faroese writer who writes in Faroese who has won the prize is the poet Rói Patursson (born 1947), who won the prize in 1986 for Líkasum.[92]

The Faroe Islands have an active music scene, with live music being a regular part of the Islands' life and many Faroese being proficient at a number of instruments. Multiple Danish Music Award winner Teitur Lassen calls the Faroes home and is arguably the Islands' most internationally well-known musical export.

The Islands have their own orchestra (the classical ensemble Aldubáran) and many different choirs; the best-known of these is Havnarkórið. The best-known local Faroese composers are Sunleif Rasmussen and Kristian Blak, who is also head of the record company Tutl. The first Faroese opera was by Sunleif Rasmussen. It is entitled Í Óðamansgarði (The Madman's Garden) and was premiered on 12 October 2006 at the Nordic House. The opera is based on a short story by the writer William Heinesen.

The festival of contemporary and classical music, Summartónar, is held each summer. The G! Festival in Norðragøta in July and Summarfestivalurin in Klaksvík in August are both large, open-air music festivals for popular music with both local and international musicians participating. The world renowned Zappa Jazz Festival will be held August 2016.

The Nordic House in the Faroe Islands (Faroese: Norðurlandahúsið) is the most important cultural institution in the Faroes. Its aim is to support and promote Scandinavian and Faroese culture, locally and in the Nordic region. Erlendur Patursson (1913–86), Faroese member of the Nordic Council, raised the idea of a Nordic cultural house in the Faroe Islands. A Nordic competition for architects was held in 1977, in which 158 architects participated. Winners were Ola Steen from Norway and Kolbrún Ragnarsdóttir from Iceland. By staying true to folklore, the architects built the Nordic House to resemble an enchanted hill of elves. The house opened in Tórshavn in 1983. The Nordic House is a cultural organization under the Nordic Council. The Nordic House is run by a steering committee of eight, of whom three are Faroese and five from other Nordic countries. There is also a local advisory body of fifteen members, representing Faroese cultural organizations. The House is managed by a director appointed by the steering committee for a four-year term.

Traditional Faroese food is mainly based on meat, seafood and potatoes and uses few fresh vegetables. Mutton of the Faroe sheep is the basis of many meals, and one of the most popular treats is skerpikjøt, well aged, wind-dried mutton, which is quite chewy. The drying shed, known as a hjallur, is a standard feature in many Faroese homes, particularly in the small towns and villages. Other traditional foods are ræst kjøt (semi-dried mutton) and ræstur fiskur, matured fish. Another Faroese specialty is tvøst og spik, pilot whale meat and blubber. (A parallel meat/fat dish made with offal is garnatálg.) Meat and blubber from a pilot whale means food for a long time. Fresh fish also features strongly in the traditional local diet, as do seabirds, such as Faroese puffins, and their eggs. Dried fish is also commonly eaten.

There are two breweries in the Faroe Islands. The first brewery is called Föroya Bjór and has produced beer since 1888 with exports mainly to Iceland and Denmark. The second brewery is called Okkara Bryggjarí and was founded in 2010. A local specialty is fredrikk, a special brew made in Nólsoy. Production of hard alcohol such as snaps is forbidden in the Faroe Islands, hence the Faroese akvavit is produced abroad.

Since the friendly British occupation, the Faroese have been fond of British food, in particular fish and chips and British-style chocolate such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, which is found in many of the island's shops, whereas in Denmark this is scarce.

There are records of drive hunts in the Faroe Islands dating from 1584.[94]Whaling in the Faroe Islands is regulated by Faroese authorities but not by the International Whaling Commission as there are disagreements about the Commission's legal authority to regulate cetacean hunts. Hundreds of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) could be killed in a year, mainly during the summer. The hunts, called grindadráp in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level; anyone can participate. When a whale pod by chance is spotted near land the participating hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats and then slowly and quietly begin to drive the whales towards the chosen authorised bay.[95] When a pod of whales has been stranded the killing is begun. Faroese animal welfare legislation, which also applies to whaling, requires that animals are killed as quickly and with as little suffering as possible. A regulation spinal lance is used to sever the spinal cord, which also severs the major blood supply to the brain, ensuring both loss of consciousness and death within seconds. The spinal lance has been introduced as preferred standard equipment for killing pilot whales and has been shown to reduce killing time to 1–2 seconds.[95]

This "grindadráp" is legal and provides food for many people in the Faroe Islands.[96][97][98] However, a study has found whale meat and blubber to currently be contaminated with mercury and not recommended for human consumption, as too much may cause such adverse health effects as birth defects of the nervous system, high blood pressure, damaged immune system, increased risk for developing Parkinson's disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and Diabetes mellitus type 2:

Therefore we recommend that adults eat no more than one to two meals a month. Women who plan to become pregnant within three months, pregnant women, and nursing women should abstain from eating pilot whale meat. Pilot whale liver and kidneys should not be eaten at all.[99]

Most Faroese Islanders consider the hunt an important part of their culture and history. Animal rights groups, such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, criticize it as being cruel and unnecessary, since it in their point of view is no longer necessary as a food source for the Faroese people, while the hunters claim in return that most journalists do not exhibit sufficient knowledge of the catch methods or its economic significance.

The sustainability of the Faroese pilot whale hunt has been discussed, but with a long-term average catch of around 800 pilot whales on the Faroe Islands a year the hunt is not considered to have a significant impact on the pilot whale population. There are an estimated 128,000 pilot whales in the Northeast Atlantic, and Faroese whaling is therefore considered a sustainable catch by the Faroese government.[100] Annual records of whale drives and strandings of pilot whales and other small cetaceans provide over 400 years of documentation, including statistics, and represents one of the most comprehensive historical records of wildlife utilization anywhere in the world.[95]

Football is by far the biggest sports activity on the islands, with 7,000 registered players out of the whole population of 50,000. Ten football teams contest the Faroe Islands Premier League, currently ranked 51st by UEFA's League coefficient. The Faroe Islands are a full member of UEFA and the Faroe Islands national football team competes in the UEFA European Football Championship qualifiers. The country is also a full member of FIFA and therefore the Faroe Islands football team also competes in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The country won its first ever competitive match when the team defeated Austria 1–0 in a UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying. The nation's biggest success in football came in 2014 after defeating Greece 1–0, a result that was considered "the biggest shock of all time" in football[101] thanks to a 169-place distance between the teams in the FIFA World Rankings when the match was played. The team climbed 82 places to 105 on the FIFA ranking after the 1–0 win against Greece.[102] The team went on to defeat Greece again on 13 June 2015 by a score of 2–1. On 9 July 2015 the national football team of the Faroes climbed another 28 places up on the FIFA ranking.[103]

The Faroe Islands are a full member of FINA and compete under their own flag at World Championships, European Championships and World Cup events. The Faroese swimmer Pál Joensen (born 1990) won a bronze medal at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)[104] and four silver medals at the European Championships (2010, 2013 and 2014),[105] all medals won in the men's longest and second longest distance the 1500 and 800 metre freestyle, short and long course. The Faroe Islands compete in the Paralympics and have won 1 gold,7 silvers and 5 bronze medals since 1984 Summer Paralympics.

Two Faroese athletes have competed at the Olympics, but under the Danish flag, since the Olympic Committee does not allow the Faroe Islands to compete under its own flag. The two Faroese who have competed are the swimmer Pál Joensen in 2012 and the rower Katrin Olsen. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in double sculler light weight together with Juliane Rasmussen. Another Faroese rower, who is a member of the Danish National rowing team, is Sverri Sandberg Nielsen, who currently competes in single sculler, heavy weight, he has also competed in double sculler. He is the current Danish record holder in the men's indoor rowing, heavy weight; he broke a nine-year-old record in January 2015[106] and improved it in January 2016.[107] He has also competed at the 2015 World Rowing Championships making it to the semifinal; he competed at the 2015 World Rowing Championship under-23 and made it to the final where he placed fourth.[108]

The Faroe Islands applied to the IOC for full Faroese membership in 1984, but as of 2017[update] the Faroe Islands are still not a member of the IOC. but in the 2015 European Games in Baku,Azerbaijan, and the Faroe Islands were not allowed to compete under the Faroese flag; they were, however, allowed to compete under the Ligue Européenne de Natation flag.Before this, the Faroese prime minister Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen had a meeting with the IOC president Thomas Bach in Lausanne on 21 May 2015 to discuss Faroese membership in the IOC.[109][110]

During 2014, Faroe Islands was given the opportunity to compete in the Electronic Sports European Championship (ESEC) in E-Sports.[112] 5 players, all of Faroese nationality, faced Slovenia in the first round, eventually getting knocked out with a 0-2 score.[113]

At the 2016 Baku Chess Olympiad, the Faroe Islands got their first chess grandmaster. Helgi Ziska won his third GM norm and thus, won the title of chess grandmaster.[114]

2018 Faroe Islands was given another chance to compete internationally in E-Sports, this time attending Northern European Minor Championship 2018. Team captain this year was Rókur Dam Norðoy.[115]

Faroese handicrafts are mainly based on materials available to local villages—mainly wool. Garments include jumpers, scarves, and gloves. Faroese jumpers have distinct Nordic patterns; each village has some regional variations handed down from mother to daughter. There has recently been a strong revival of interest in Faroese knitting, with young people knitting and wearing updated versions of old patterns emphasized by strong colours and bold patterns. This appears to be a reaction to the loss of traditional lifestyles, and as a way to maintain and assert cultural tradition in a rapidly-changing society. Many young people study and move abroad, and this helps them maintain cultural links with their specific Faroese heritage.

Lace knitting is a traditional handicraft. The most distinctive trait of Faroese lace shawls is the centre-back gusset shaping. Each shawl consists of two triangular side panels, a trapezoid-shaped back gusset, an edge treatment, and usually shoulder shaping. These are worn by all generations of women, particularly as part of the traditional Faroese costume as an overgarment.

Faroese folk dancers, some of them in national costume

The traditional Faroese national dress is also a local handicraft that people spend a lot of time, money, and effort to assemble. It is worn at weddings and traditional dancing events, and on feast days. The cultural significance of the garment should not be underestimated, both as an expression of local and national identity and a passing on and reinforcing of traditional skills that bind local communities together.

A young Faroese person is normally handed down a set of children's Faroese clothes that have passed from generation to generation. Children are confirmed at age 14, and normally start to collect the pieces to make an adult outfit, which is considered as a rite of passage. Traditionally the aim would have been to complete the outfit by the time a young person was ready to marry and wear the clothes at the ceremony—though it is mainly only men who do this now.

Each piece is intricately hand-knitted, dyed, woven or embroidered to the specifications of the wearer. For example, the man's waistcoat is put together by hand in bright blue, red or black fine wool. The front is then intricately embroidered with colourful silk threads, often by a female relative. The motifs are often local Faroese flowers or herbs. After this, a row of Faroese-made solid silver buttons are sewn on the outfit.

Women wear embroidered silk, cotton or wool shawls and pinafores that can take months to weave or embroider with local flora and fauna. They are also adorned with a handwoven black and red ankle-length skirt, knitted black and red jumper, a velvet belt, and black 18th century style shoes with silver buckles. The outfit is held together by a row of solid silver buttons, silver chains and locally-made silver brooches and belt buckles, often fashioned with Viking style motifs.

Both men's and women's national dress are extremely costly and can take many years to assemble. Women in the family often work together to assemble the outfits, including knitting the close-fitting jumpers, weaving and embroidering, sewing and assembling the national dress.

This tradition binds together families, passes on traditional crafts, and reinforces the Faroese culture of traditional village life in the context of a modern society.

Ólavsøka is on 29 July; it commemorates the death of Saint Olaf. The celebrations are held in Tórshavn, starting on the evening of the 28th and continuing until the 31st. 28 July is a half working day for the members of some of the labour unions, while Ólavsøkudagur (St Olaf's Day) on 29 July is a full holiday for most but not all union members.[117][118]

The official celebration starts on the 29th, with the opening of the Faroese Parliament, a custom that dates back 900 years.[119] This begins with a service held in Tórshavn Cathedral; all members of parliament as well as civil and church officials walk to the cathedral in a procession. All of the parish ministers take turns giving the sermon. After the service, the procession returns to the parliament for the opening ceremony.

Other celebrations are marked by different kinds of sports competitions, the rowing competition (in Tórshavn Harbour) being the most popular, art exhibitions, pop concerts, and the famous Faroese dance in Sjónleikarhúsið and on Vaglið outdoor singing on 29 July (continuing after midnight on 30 July). The celebrations have many facets, and only a few are mentioned here.

Many people also mark the occasion by wearing the national Faroese dress.

1.
Fair Isle
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Fair Isle is an island in northern Scotland, belonging to the Shetland island group, lying around halfway between mainland Shetland and the Orkney islands. It is known for its observatory and a traditional style of knitting. Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, Fair Isle is 4.8 km long and 2.4 km wide. It has an area of 3 sq mi, making it the tenth largest of the Shetland Islands and it gives its name to one of the British Sea Areas. The majority of the live in the crofts on the southern half of the island. The western coast consists of cliffs of up to 200 m in height, with Ward Hill at 217 m being the elevation of the island. There are two known Iron Age sites – a promontory fort at Landberg and the foundations of a house underlying an early Christian settlement at Kirkigeo, most of the place-names date from after the 9th-century Norse settlement of the Northern Isles. By that time the lands had clearly been in use for centuries. On 20 August 1588 the flagship of the Spanish Armada, El Gran Grifón, was shipwrecked in the cove of Stroms Heelor, the wreck was discovered in 1970. The large Canadian sailing ship Black Watch was wrecked on Fair Isle in 1877, Fair Isle was bought by the National Trust for Scotland in 1954 from George Waterston, the founder of the bird observatory. The population has been decreasing steadily from about 400 in 1900, there are currently around 55 permanent residents on the island, the majority of whom are crofters who work the land. The island has 14 scheduled monuments, ranging from the earliest signs of activity to the remains of a Second World War radar station. The two automated lighthouses are protected as listed buildings, the island houses a series of high-technology relay stations carrying vital TV, radio, telephone and military communication links between Shetland, Orkney and the Scottish mainland. In this respect it continues its role as a signal-station, linking the mainland. In 1976, when television relay equipment was updated to permit colour broadcasts to Shetland, many television signals are relayed from Orkney to Shetland via Orkneys Keelylang Hill transmitter station. Over the centuries the island has changed many times. Rent was usually paid to landlords in butter, cloth. Fishing has always been an important industry for the island, in 1702, the Dutch, who were interested in Shetlands herring fisheries, fought a naval battle against French warships just off the island

2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

3.
Faroese language
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It is one of five languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn and Greenlandic Norse. Around 900, the language spoken in the Faroes was Old Norse, however, many of the settlers were not from Scandinavia, but descendants of Norse settlers in the Irish Sea region. In addition, women from Norse Ireland, Orkney, or Shetland often married native Scandinavian men before settling in the Faroe Islands, as a result, the Irish language has had some influence on both Faroese and Icelandic. There is some evidence of Irish language place names in the Faroes, for example. Until the 15th century Faroese had a similar to Icelandic and Norwegian. The islanders continued to use the language in ballads, folktales and this maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years the language was not used in written form. This changed when Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb and the Icelandic grammarian and politician Jón Sigurðsson published a standard for Modern Faroese in 1854. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its Old Norse roots and this had the advantage of being etymologically clear, as well as keeping the kinship with the Icelandic written language. The actual pronunciation, however, often differs from the written rendering, the letter ð, for example, has no specific phoneme attached to it. Jakob Jakobsen devised a system of orthography, based on his wish for a phonetic spelling. In 1937, Faroese replaced Danish as the school language, in 1938 as the church language. However, Faroese did not become the language of media. Today Danish is considered a language, although around 5% of residents on the Faroes learn it as a first language. Old Faroese is a form of Old Norse spoken in medieval times in the Faroe Islands, the most crucial aspects of the development of Faroese are diphthongisation and palatalisation. There is not enough available to establish an accurate chronology of Faroese. Iotacism may be connected with the palatalisation of k, g and sk before Old Norse e, i, y, ø, au > /kj, ɡj, skj/ > /cç, ɟʝ, ɕcç/ > /tʃʰ, tʃ. Before the palatalisation é and ǽ merged as /ɛː/ and approximately in the same period epenthesis u is inserted into word-final /Cr/, the Great Quantity Shift operated in the 15th/16th centuries. In the case of skerping, it took place after iotacism, the shift of hv to /kw/, the deletion of /h/ in word-initial /h/–sonorant clusters, and the dissolution of þ appeared before the end of the 13th century

4.
Danish language
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There are also minor Danish-speaking communities in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their home language. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions. With the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of printing, a language was developed which was based on the educated Copenhagen dialect. It spread through use in the system and administration though German. Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though there are variants of the standard language. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative, Danish has a very large vowel inventory comprising 27 phonemically distinctive vowels, and its prosody is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon stød, a kind of laryngeal phonation type. The grammar is moderately inflective with strong and weak conjugations and inflections, nouns and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. As in English, Danish only has remnants of a case system, particularly in the pronouns. Its syntax is V2, with the verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence. Danish is a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch, other names for this group are the Nordic or Scandinavian languages. Along with Swedish, Danish descends from the Eastern dialects of the Old Norse language, Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum, where there are no sharp dividing lines between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, Danish itself can be divided into three main dialect areas, West Danish, Insular Danish, and East Danish. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish, both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each others languages. By the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language was called the Danish tongue, or Norse language. Norse was written in the alphabet, first with the elder futhark. From the 7th century the common Norse language began to undergo changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, most of the changes separating East Norse from West Norse started as innovations in Denmark, that spread through Scania into Sweden and by maritime contact to southern Norway

5.
Flag of Faroe Islands
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The flag of the Faroe Islands is an offset cross, representing Christianity. It is similar in design to other Nordic flags – a tradition set by the Dannebrog of Denmark, the flag is called Merkið, which means the banner or the mark. It resembles the flags of neighbouring Norway and Iceland, the design of the flag incorporates a red Nordic cross, which is offset to the left. The red cross is fimbriated azure and is set on a white field, the flag design closely resembles that of the Norwegian flag, with the fimbriated cross. The flag proportion is usually 5,7, the modern Faroese flag was devised in 1919 by Jens Oliver Lisberg and others while they were studying in Copenhagen. The first time Merkið was raised in the Faroe Islands was on 22 June that year in Fámjin on the occasion of a wedding. On 25 April,1940, the British occupation government approved the flag for use by Faroese vessels, britain did not want the same flag as German occupied Denmark to be used. April 25 is still celebrated as Flaggdagur and it is a national holiday, with the Home Rule Act of 23 March,1948, the flag was recognized by the Danish Government as the national flag of the Faroes. The original flag is displayed in the church of Fámjin in Suðuroy, in the music video for singer Björks song Declare Independence, the flag of the Faroe Islands are featured on the uniforms of those who appear in the video. Flag of Denmark Flag of Greenland List of flags of Denmark Nordic Cross flag Raven banner Faroe Islands at Flags of the World

6.
Coat of arms of Faroe Islands
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The coat of arms of the Faroe Islands first appears on one of the medieval chairs in Kirkjubøur from around the 15th century. It depicts a silver ram passant with golden hooves and horns on an azure shield, later uses show a ram in a seal used by the Løgrættumenn, members of the Old Faroese law Court, the Løgting. In 1948, the coat of arms came into use again after the Home Rule Act came into force, not by the Løgting, the old title Løgmaður had been reestablished, but this time as the leader of the government, and the coat of arms followed him. On 1 April 2004, the Prime Ministers Office announced that from then on that it would use a new version of the coat of arms and this new interpretation was based on the original found depicted on the chairs from Kirkjubøur. The colours were inspired from the Faroese flag Merkið, and golden yellow was added, the new coat of arms depicts a ram on a blue shield ready to defend. It can be used by Cabinet Ministries and by official Faroese representatives, though some still use the old symbol

7.
Northern Europe
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Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. However, narrower definitions may also be used based on geographical factors, such as climate. Greenland, geographically a part of North America, is politically a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, while Northern Europe overlaps with most of Northwestern Europe, north-Central Europe, and Northeastern Europe, it does not border Southern Europe. Countries which are central-western, central-central, or central-eastern are generally considered part of neither Northern Europe or Southern Europe. Historically, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region, everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including southern Germany, all of the Low Countries and this meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In medieval times, the term Thule was used to mean a place in the extreme northern reaches of the continent. The region has a south west extreme of around 50 degrees north, the entire regions climate is mildly affected by the Gulf Stream. From the west climates vary from maritime and maritime subarctic climates, in the north and central climates are generally subarctic or Arctic and to the east climates are mostly subarctic and temperate/continental. With the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland, Northern European countries are known for harsh winters with temperatures reaching as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius in some parts. Countries in Northern Europe have large, developed economies and some of the highest standards of living in the world and they often score highly on surveys measuring quality of life, such as the Human Development Index

8.
Kingdom of Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government

9.
Greenland
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Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland

10.
Denmark
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth

11.
Ethnic groups
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive

12.
Faroe Islanders
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Faroese people are a Germanic ethnic group and nation native to the Faroe Islands. The Faroese are of mixed Norse and Gaelic origins, about 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countries, particularly in Denmark, Iceland and Norway. Most Faroese are citizens of the Kingdom of Denmark, in which, the Faroese language is one of the North Germanic languages and is closely related to Icelandic and to western Norwegian varieties. The first known colonists were Gaelic hermits and monks who arrived in the 6th century, later from around 650 the Norse-Gaels came and brought Norse culture and language to the islands. Little is known about this period, thus giving room for speculation, a single source mentions early settlement, the Icelandic Færeyinga saga. It was written sometime around 1200, and explains events taking place approximately 300 years prior, according to the saga, many Norsemen objected to the Norwegian kings unification politics and thus fled to other countries, including the newfound places in the west. Historians have understood since the time of the Færeyinga saga that the Viking Grímur Kamban was the first settler in the Faroes, the Norwegians must have known about the isles before leaving Norway. If Grímur Kamban had settled some time earlier, this could explain the Norwegians knowing about them, another, more logical explanation might be that the Norwegians came to know about the islands by the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland. While Grímur is an Old Norse first name, Kamban indicates a Celtic origin, thus he could have been a man from Ireland, Scotland or Isle of Man, where the Vikings already had settlements. Some place names from the oldest settlements on the Faroes suggest that some of the settlers came from the Scottish islands. Recent DNA analyses have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian, the studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Celtic. List of Faroese people Demographics of the Faroe Islands Culture of the Faroe Islands Flag of the Faroe Islands Faroese Dane

13.
Church of the Faroe Islands
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The Church of the Faroe Islands is one of the smallest of the worlds state churches. Prior to its becoming independent on 29 July 2007, it had been a diocese of the Church of Denmark, about 81. 6% of the Faroe Islanders belong to the state church. Other churches in the Faroe Islands include the Plymouth Brethren and the Catholic Church, according to Færeyinga saga, it was the Viking chief Sigmundur Brestisson who brought Christianity to the Faroe Islands. On the orders of the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason, Sigmundur forced the people to convert to Christianity in 999. Resistance to the new religion led by the notorious Tróndur í Gøtu was quickly suppressed, from the time Christianity was introduced until the Reformation there were probably 33 bishops in the Faroe Islands. This period was not always peaceful, the sagas of the Faroe Islands contain two accounts of the way the church took possession of a large proportion of the land, overtaxing the people so harshly that it led to open rebellion. The saga of the battle of Mannafallsdal relates that the bishop was killed outside his church by the rebels, the historical value of this saga is highly debatable - but it does serve to illustrate the conflict between the theocratic church and an impoverished population. However, there is documentation of the fact that the bishops residence in Kirkjubø was burnt to the ground by the rebels. Bishop Erlend died in Bergen in 1308, in 1540 the last Catholic bishop in the Faroe Islands was removed from his position. His Protestant replacement only lasted a few years - then he too left the islands, brochmands devotional book dating back to about 1650 and Thomas Kingos hymns from 1699 constituted a significant proportion of the spiritual life of the islands right up until the twentieth century. Indeed, the expression Brochmandslestur is still used to long and, as some might perceive them, boring texts. See main articles, Faroese language conflict, Christmas Meeting of 1888 When the Danish trade monopoly was lifted in 1856, the restoration of long-suppressed Faroese culture also led to changes in Christianity on the islands. After great contention, Faroese was given the status as Danish in hymns. The ecclesiastical rituals were introduced in Faroese in 1930, and in 1961 the authorised Faroese edition of the Bible was published, during the first half of the 20th century, Dean Jákup Dahl had translated the New Testament from Greek - this was published in 1937. Dahl also translated the psalms from the Old Testament, and after his death in 1944 a vicar named Kristian Osvald Viderø continued to translate the rest of the Bible from Hebrew. In 1963 the first Faroese hymn book was published, and in the year the old title of Dean on the islands was upgraded to Deputy Bishop. In 1977 the first female vicar was ordained, and in 1990 the Faroe Islands became an independent diocese with its own bishop within the Church of Denmark. In 2005 the Faroes signed a treaty with Denmark that allows for the taking over of most public institutions, including the Vágar Airport, on the National Holiday Ólavsøka,29 July 2007, the Faroese Church became totally independent of the Church of Denmark

14.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above

15.
Danish Realm
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government

16.
Parliamentary system
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In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a different person from the head of government. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, eventually these councils have slowly evolved into the modern Parliamentary system. The first parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages, for example in 1188 Alfonso IX, the modern concept of parliamentary government emerged in the Kingdom of Great Britain and its contemporary, the Parliamentary System in Sweden. In England, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the fathers of representative government for holding two famous parliaments, the first, in 1258, stripped the King of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns. Later, in the 17th century, the Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of liberal democracy culminating in the Glorious Revolution, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, the monarch, in theory, chaired cabinet and chose ministers. In practice, King George Is inability to speak English led the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the minister, literally the prime or first minister. By the nineteenth century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice invariably deciding who was prime minister, hence the use of phrases like Her Majestys government or His Excellencys government. Nineteenth century urbanisation, industrial revolution and, modernism had already fueled the political struggle for democracy. In the radicalised times at the end of World War I, a parliamentary system may be either bicameral, with two chambers of parliament or unicameral, with just one parliamentary chamber. Scholars of democracy such as Arend Lijphart distinguish two types of parliamentary democracies, the Westminster and Consensus systems, the Westminster system is usually found in the Commonwealth of Nations and countries which were influenced by the British political tradition. These parliaments tend to have a more style of debate. The Australian House of Representatives is elected using instant-runoff voting, while the Senate is elected using proportional representation through single transferable vote, regardless of which system is used, the voting systems tend to allow the voter to vote for a named candidate rather than a closed list. The Western European parliamentary model tends to have a more consensual debating system, Consensus systems have more of a tendency to use proportional representation with open party lists than the Westminster Model legislatures. The committees of these Parliaments tend to be more important than the plenary chamber, some West European countries parliaments implement the principle of dualism as a form of separation of powers. In countries using this system, Members of Parliament have to resign their place in Parliament upon being appointed minister, ministers in those countries usually actively participate in parliamentary debates, but are not entitled to vote. Some countries such as India also require the prime minister to be a member of the legislature, the head of state appoints a prime minister who will likely have majority support in parliament. The head of state appoints a minister who must gain a vote of confidence within a set time. The head of state appoints the leader of the party holding a plurality of seats in parliament as prime minister

17.
Constitutional monarchy
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A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign exercises their authorities in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution. A constitutional monarchy may refer to a system in which the acts as a non-party political head of state under the constitution. Political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, paraphrasing Thomas Macaulay, has defined a constitutional monarch as a sovereign who reigns, in addition to acting as a visible symbol of national unity, a constitutional monarch may hold formal powers such as dissolving parliament or giving royal assent to legislation. Many constitutional monarchies still retain significant authorities or political influence however, such as through certain reserve powers, the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms are all constitutional monarchies in the Westminster tradition of constitutional governance. Three states – Malaysia, Cambodia and the Holy See – are elective monarchies, the oldest constitutional monarchy dating back to ancient times was that of the Hittites. These were scattered noble families that worked as representatives of their subjects in an adjutant or subaltern federal-type landscape, the most recent country to move from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy was Bhutan, between 2007 and 2008. At the same time, in Scotland the Convention of Estates enacted the Claim of Right Act 1689, although Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when in 1707 she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill, Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies. For instance George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation, eventually precipitating the resignation of William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister in 1801, Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power but this diminished over the course of her reign. In 1839 she became the last sovereign to keep a Prime Minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbournes administration, today, the role of the British monarch is by convention effectively ceremonial. No person may accept significant public office without swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen, with few exceptions, the monarch is bound by constitutional convention to act on the advice of the Government. Constitutional monarchy also occurred briefly in the years of the French Revolution. As originally conceived, a monarch was head of the executive branch and quite a powerful figure even though his or her power was limited by the constitution. In many cases the monarchs, while still at the top of the political and social hierarchy, were given the status of servants of the people to reflect the new. In the course of Frances July Monarchy, Louis-Philippe I was styled King of the French rather than King of France, following the Unification of Germany, Otto von Bismarck rejected the British model. However this model of constitutional monarchy was discredited and abolished following Germanys defeat in the First World War. Later, Fascist Italy could also be considered as a constitutional monarchy and this eventually discredited the Italian monarchy and led to its abolition in 1946. After the Second World War, surviving European monarchies almost invariably adopted some variant of the constitutional monarchy model originally developed in Britain, nowadays a parliamentary democracy that is a constitutional monarchy is considered to differ from one that is a republic only in detail rather than in substance. However, three important factors distinguish monarchies such as the United Kingdom from systems where greater power might otherwise rest with Parliament, other privileges may be nominal or ceremonial

18.
Monarchy of Denmark
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The Monarchy of Denmark, colloquially known as the Danish Monarchy, is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes not only Denmark, but the regions of Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark were already consolidated in the late 8th century, originally an elective monarchy, it became hereditary only in the 17th century during the reign of Frederick III. A decisive transition to a constitutional monarchy occurred in 1849 with the writing of the first Constitution, the current Royal House is a branch of the princely family of Glücksburg, originally from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, the same royal house as the Norwegian and former Greek royal families. The Danish Monarchy is constitutional and as such, the role of the monarch is defined and limited by the Constitution of Denmark, the monarch is, in practice, limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch and his or her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic, Queen Margrethe II ascended the throne on the death of her father, King Frederick IX, on 14 January 1972. On her accession, Queen Margrethe II became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margrethe I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375‒1412, during the Kalmar Union. Danish regnal names have traditionally alternated between Frederick and Christian, Margrethe has taken the place of a Christian, and accordingly her heir apparent is Crown Prince Frederik. The modern Kingdom of Denmark dates back to Harthacnuts son, Gorm the Old, the first King of a united Scotland was King Kenneth MacAlpin who died around 80 years before Gorm the Old was born. The Danes were united and officially Christianized in 965 CE by Harald Bluetooth, furthermore, the Jelling stones attests that Harald had also won Norway. The son of Harald, Sweyn Forkbeard, mounted a series of wars of conquest against England, the reign of Cnut represented the peak of the Danish Viking age, his North Sea Empire included Denmark, Norway, England and held strong influence over the north-eastern coast of Germany. The last monarch descended from Valdemar IV, Christopher III of Denmark, Count Christian of Oldenburg, descendant of Valdemar IVs aunt Richeza, was chosen as his successor and became the next monarch of Denmark, ruling under the name Christian I. Originally the Danish monarchy was elective, but in practice the eldest son of the monarch was elected. Later a Coronation Charter was signed by the king to restrict the powers of the Danish monarch, in 1657, during the Second Northern War, King Frederick III launched a war of revenge against Sweden which turned into a complete disaster. The war became a disaster for two reasons, Primarily, because Denmarks new powerful ally, the Netherlands, remained neutral as Denmark was the aggressor and Sweden the defender. Secondly, the Belts froze over in an occurrence during the winter of 1657-1658. In the following Treaty of Roskilde, Denmark–Norway capitulated and gave up all of Eastern Denmark, in addition to the counties of Bohuslän, but the Second Northern War was not yet over. Three months after the treaty was signed, Charles X Gustav held a council of war where he decided to simply wipe Denmark from the map

19.
Margrethe II of Denmark
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Margrethe II is the Queen of Denmark. She is also the authority of the Church of Denmark. Born into the House of Glücksburg, a house with origins in Northern Germany, she was the eldest child of Frederick IX of Denmark. She succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972, having had become heir presumptive to her father in 1953, on her accession, Margrethe became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375–1412 during the Kalmar Union. Having been on the Danish throne for 45 years, she is the second longest-reigning Danish monarch after her ancestor Christian IV, in 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she has two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. Princess Margrethe was born 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as the first child of Crown Prince Frederick, later King Frederick IX and Crown Princess Ingrid and her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940. She was baptised on 14 May in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen, since her paternal grandfather was also the King of Iceland, she was given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur. When Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her first sister, Princess Benedikte later married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives some of the time in Germany. Her second sister Princess Anne Marie was born in 1946, anne-Marie later married Constantine II of Greece and now lives in Greece. Margrethe and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederick VIIIs Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and she spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parents summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethes father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX. At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark, as she had no brothers, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne. The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after her father ascended the throne, the popularity of Frederick and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life started the complicated process of altering the constitution. The law required that the proposal be passed by two successive Parliaments and then by a referendum, which occurred 27 March 1953, Princess Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive. On her eighteenth birthday,16 April 1958, Margrethe was given a seat in the Council of State and she subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King. Margrethe was educated at the private school N. Zahles School in Copenhagen from which she graduated in 1959 and she is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Queen Margrethe is fluent in Danish, French, English, Swedish and German, Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat,10 June 1967, at the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. Laborde de Monpezat received the style and title of His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark because of his new position as the spouse of the heir presumptive to the Danish throne, Margrethe gave birth to her first child 26 May 1968

20.
Aksel V. Johannesen
–
Aksel Vilhelmsson Johannesen is a Faroese lawyer and politician for the Social Democratic Party. He is the current prime minister of the Faroe Islands, at the Faroese general election,2008 Aksel Johannesen was the partys 1st suppleant to the Løgting, and sometimes he took seat in the parliament, especially for Andrias Petersen. He became minister of health on 16 July 2009, when John Johannessen declined the position after Hans Pauli Strøm stepped down. He resigned as minister of health and was assigned as minister of finance on 21 February and was at the time elected president of the Social Democratic Party on 5 March 2011. On 6 April the same year, he was appointed as prime minister. His main task as the president of the Social Democratic Party was to make the party rise to its strength again for the upcoming election for the Løgting. On 14 November 2011 the cabinet was renewed and the Social Democratic Party was not a part of the new cabinet, Aksel Johannesen then became chairman of the Social Democratic Party on the Løgting. At the Faroese general election on 1 September 2015, Johannesens party won the election with 25. 1% of the votes, Johannesen himself got 2405 personal votes which was a new Faroese record. He broke the record of Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen from 2011 which was 1967 personal votes, Aksel V. Johannesen played football with his hometown club KÍ Klaksvík, mostly as a forward. Although not always a choice in the best team, he made his contribution, as KÍ won the Faroese League in 1991. Aksel V. Johannesen is also a runner, he was national 100 meters champion in 1994. He also played volleyball for Mjølnir, the club of Klaksvík and he is educated Master of Law from the University of Copenhagen in 2004, and worked as a lawyer in Tórshavn from 2007 until he became an active politician. He is former president of the club of Klaksvík, Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag. Aksel V. Johannesen is the son of Vilhelm Johannesen, a former Faroese politician

21.
Norwegian Empire
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To the North, Norway also bordered extensive tax territories on the mainland. As one of the colonial powers of Europe, Norway, whose expansionalism starts from the very foundation of the Kingdom in 872. During this period of about 450 years, Norway was an influential European power both intellectually and militarily, the Norwegians also established trade relations and fought battles in North America, the Middle East and North Africa. They settled in the British Isles and controlled the Irish Sea with international slave trade, however, Norway would become more concerned with diplomacy and intellectual culture after the death of Saint Olav. The death of Norways patron saint marks the city of Trondheim becoming the most important pilgrimage site in Northern Europe. In the years 1042–1047 the King of Norway Magnus the Good also ruled Denmark, at the peak of the Norwegian Empire before the civil war, Sigurd I successfully led the Norwegian Crusade in order to aid in the liberation of Muslim-occupied territory in Europe. This includes Lisbon, before Sigurd and his Norwegian force headed for the Middle East to aid Baldwin I in establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Norway was the second European country after England to enforce a code of law to be applied for the whole country. The secular power was at its strongest at the end of King Haakon Haakonssons reign in 1263, an important element of the period was the ecclesiastical supremacy of the archdiocese of Nidaros from 1152. There are no sources for when Jämtland was placed under the archbishop of Uppsala. Uppsala was established later, and was the metropolitan diocese in Scandinavia after Lund. The church participated in a political process both before and during the Kalmar Union that aimed at Swedish side, to establish a position for Sweden in Jämtland. This area had been from time immemorial a borderland in relation to the Swedish kingdom, a unified realm was initiated by King Harald I Fairhair in the 9th century. His efforts in unifying the petty kingdoms of Norway, resulted in the first known Norwegian central government, the country however fragmented soon, and was again collected into one entity in the first half of the 11th century. Norway has been a monarchy since Fairhair, passing through several eras and this is considered the first year of the Norwegian Empire. In Ranríki Konunghella was built as a royal city alongside Túnsberg and Biorgvin, Herjárdalr became Norwegian during the 12th century and remained so for five centuries. Jamtaland started paying taxes to Norway during the 13th century and was absorbed into a part of the mainland territory the same century. It was occupied by the Swedish during the Nordic Seven Years War, Idre and Særna, Norwegian since the 12th century, were conquered by Sweden during the Hannibal controversy

22.
Treaty of Kiel
–
Specifically excluded from the exchange were the Norwegian dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which remained in the union with Denmark. Norway unsuccessfully contested the Danish claim to all of Greenland in the East Greenland case of 1931–1933, however, not all provisions of the treaty would come into force. Norway declared its independence, adopted a Constitution and elected Crown Prince Christian Frederik as its own king, Sweden therefore refused to hand over Swedish Pomerania, which instead passed to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. After a short war with Sweden, Norway accepted entering into a union with Sweden at the Convention of Moss. King Christian Frederik abdicated after convening an extraordinary Storting, which revised the Constitution to allow for the Union and it was formally established when the Storting elected Charles XIII as king of Norway on 4 November 1814. In the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark-Norway and the Kingdom of Sweden tried to maintain neutrality, the United Kingdom, which had declared war on France in 1803, paid subsidies to Sweden. Before Gustav IV Adolf marched his forces out of Swedish Pomerania, in 1807, Napoleonic forces seized Swedish Pomerania and forced Prussia and Russia to sign the Treaty of Tilsit. Sweden could no longer uphold her anti-French foreign policy, and French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810, Denmark-Norway entered an alliance with France after the second British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807. In 1812, Napoleons forces were decimated in their attempt to subdue Russia. Sweden allied with Russia on 30 August 1812, with the United Kingdom on 3 March 1813, previously, on 23 March 1813, she had declared war on Napoleon. Bernadottes condition for entering the anti-Napoleonic alliance was the gain of Norway, Prussia however did not acknowledge this claim at first. Thus, Bernadotte hesitated to enter the war with full force, when Prussia finally accepted the Swedish claim to Norway on 22 July, Sweden joined the alliance of Reichenbach concluded between Russia, the United Kingdom and Prussia on 14/15 June. With three armies, the allies subsequently cleared Northern Germany of French forces, Denmark, who had maintained the alliance with Napoleon because of the Swedish claim to Norway, was isolated and, as a consequence of the war, bankrupt. It consisted of 14 articles, to two articles were added in Brussels on 7 April. In article III, the United Kingdom was obliged to return all occupied Danish possessions to the Danish king, excepted was the island of Heligoland, where the British king was granted full and unlimited sovereignty. Article VIII was concerned with the abolishment of slave trade, in article X, the British king promised the Danish king to negotiate further compensation for Denmarks territorial cessions to Sweden in a pending final peace. In article XIII, older Dano-British treaties were confirmed, the treaty between the Kingdom of Denmark and the Kingdom of Sweden was negotiated by Danish diplomat Edmund Bourke and Swedish envoy Baron Gustaf af Wetterstedt with British mediation. It consisted of 28 articles and one separate article, in article IV, the Danish king in his and his successors name irrevocably and forever renounced claims to the Kingdom of Norway in favor of the Swedish king

23.
Demographics of Faroe Islands
–
The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of North Germanic descent. Ethnic Faroese are, in terms, among the most homogenous groups ever found. Recent DNA analysis have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian, the studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish / Irish. Of the approximately 48,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, 98% are Danish realm citizens, meaning Faroese, Danish, or Greenlandic. By birthplace one can derive the following origins of the inhabitants, born on the Faroes 91. 7%, in Denmark 5. 8%, and in Greenland 0. 3%. The largest group of foreigners are Icelanders comprising 0. 4% of the population, followed by Norwegians and Poles, altogether, on the Faroe Islands there are people from 77 different nationalities. The Faroe Islands have the highest rate of adoption in the world, Faroese is spoken in the entire country as a first language. It is not possible to say exactly how many people speak the Faroese language. The 2011 census, called Manntal, shows that 10% were not born in the Faroe Islands,6. 5% of people older than 15 did not speak Faroese as their mother tongue. 33 persons said that they did not understand Faroese at all, according to the 2011 census,45361 Faroese people spoke Faroese as their first language and 1546 spoke Danish as their first language. The Faroese language is one of the smallest of the Germanic languages and it is most similar to Icelandic and Norwegian. In the twentieth century Faroese became the language and since the Faroes are a part of the Danish realm Danish is taught in schools as a compulsory second language. Faroese language policy provides for the creation of new terms in Faroese suitable for modern life. The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated

24.
List of countries and dependencies by population
–
This is a list of countries and dependent territories by population. For instance, the United Kingdom is considered as a single entity while the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are considered separately, in addition, this list includes certain states with limited recognition not found in ISO 3166-1. The population figures do not reflect the practice of countries that report significantly different populations of citizens domestically, some countries, notably Thailand, do not report total population, exclusively counting citizens, for total populations an international agency must issue an estimate. Also given in percent is each countrys population compared to the population of the world, figures used in this chart are based on the most up to date estimate or projections by the national census authority where available, and are usually rounded off. Where updated national data are not available, figures are based on the projections for 2016 by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Because the compiled figures are not collected at the time in every country, or at the same level of accuracy. Furthermore, the addition of figures from all countries may not equal the world total, a handful of nations have not conducted a census in over 30 years, providing high error margin estimates only. Areas that form parts of sovereign states, such as the countries of the United Kingdom, are counted as part of the sovereign states concerned. Note, All dependent territories or constituent countries that are parts of states are shown in italics

25.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices

26.
Purchasing power parity
–
Observed deviations of the exchange rate from purchasing power parity are measured by deviations of the real exchange rate from its PPP value of 1. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of exchange rates. For example, suppose that two countries produce the same amounts of goods as each other in each of two different years. But if one countrys GDP is converted into the countrys currency using PPP exchange rates instead of observed market exchange rates. The idea originated with the School of Salamanca in the 16th century, the best-known purchasing power adjustment is the Geary–Khamis dollar. The real exchange rate is equal to the nominal exchange rate. If purchasing power parity held exactly, then the exchange rate would always equal one. However, in practice the exchange rates exhibit both short run and long run deviations from this value, for example due to reasons illuminated in the Balassa–Samuelson theorem. There can be marked differences between purchasing power adjusted incomes and those converted via market exchange rates. This discrepancy has large implications, for instance, when converted via the exchange rates GDP per capita in India is about US$1,965 while on a PPP basis it is about US$7,197. At the other extreme, Denmarks nominal GDP per capita is around US$62,100, the purchasing power parity exchange rate serves two main functions. PPP exchange rates can be useful for making comparisons between countries because they stay fairly constant from day to day or week to week and only change modestly, if at all, from year to year. The PPP exchange-rate calculation is controversial because of the difficulties of finding comparable baskets of goods to compare purchasing power across countries, people in different countries typically consume different baskets of goods. It is necessary to compare the cost of baskets of goods and this is a difficult task because purchasing patterns and even the goods available to purchase differ across countries. Thus, it is necessary to make adjustments for differences in the quality of goods, furthermore, the basket of goods representative of one economy will vary from that of another, Americans eat more bread, Chinese more rice. Hence a PPP calculated using the US consumption as a base will differ from that calculated using China as a base, additional statistical difficulties arise with multilateral comparisons when more than two countries are to be compared. Various ways of averaging bilateral PPPs can provide a stable multilateral comparison. These are all issues of indexing, as with other price indices there is no way to reduce complexity to a single number that is equally satisfying for all purposes

27.
Gini coefficient
–
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nations residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality. It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini, the Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution. A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same, a Gini coefficient of 1 expresses maximal inequality among values. However, a greater than one may occur if some persons represent negative contribution to the total. For larger groups, values close to or above 1 are very unlikely in practice, the exception to this is in the redistribution of wealth resulting in a minimum income for all people. When the population is sorted, if their distribution were to approximate a well known function. The Gini coefficient was proposed by Gini as a measure of inequality of income or wealth, the global income Gini coefficient in 2005 has been estimated to be between 0.61 and 0.68 by various sources. There are some issues in interpreting a Gini coefficient, the same value may result from many different distribution curves. The demographic structure should be taken into account, Countries with an aging population, or with a baby boom, experience an increasing pre-tax Gini coefficient even if real income distribution for working adults remains constant. Scholars have devised over a dozen variants of the Gini coefficient, the line at 45 degrees thus represents perfect equality of incomes. The Gini coefficient can then be thought of as the ratio of the area lies between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve over the total area under the line of equality. It is also equal to 2A and to 1 - 2B due to the fact that A + B =0.5. If all people have non-negative income, the Gini coefficient can theoretically range from 0 to 1, in practice, both extreme values are not quite reached. If negative values are possible, then the Gini coefficient could theoretically be more than 1, normally the mean is assumed positive, which rules out a Gini coefficient less than zero. An alternative approach would be to consider the Gini coefficient as half of the mean absolute difference. The effects of income policy due to redistribution can be seen in the linear relationships. An informative simplified case just distinguishes two levels of income, low and high, if the high income group is u % of the population and earns a fraction f % of all income, then the Gini coefficient is f − u. An actual more graded distribution with these same values u and f will always have a higher Gini coefficient than f − u, the proverbial case where the richest 20% have 80% of all income would lead to an income Gini coefficient of at least 60%

28.
List of countries by income equality
–
This is a list of countries or dependencies by income inequality metrics, including Gini coefficients. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality and 1 corresponds with perfect inequality, income distribution can vary greatly from wealth distribution in a country. Income from black market activity is not included and is the subject of current economic research. Click sorting buttons to sort alphabetically or numerically, can sort in ascending or descending order. The row number column on the left sorts independently from the columns to the right of it. CIA and this book released with two titles, depending on country of publication. However, the ISBN remains the same, global Peace Index Map of Gini data for 2007–2010 Shadow economies all over the world, new estimates for 162 countries from 1999 to 2007. Friedrich Schneider, Andreas Buehn, Claudio E. Montenegro

29.
Human Development Index
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The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, while the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that the IHDI is the actual level of human development, and the HDI can be viewed as an index of potential human development. The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Reports Office of the United Nations Development Programme, nobel laureate Amartya Sen, utilized Haqs work in his own work on human capabilities. The following three indices are used,1, Life Expectancy Index = LE −2085 −20 LEI is 1 when Life expectancy at birth is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth is 20. Education Index = MYSI + EYSI22.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index = MYS15 Fifteen is the maximum of this indicator for 2025. 2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index = EYS18 Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a degree in most countries. Income Index = ln ⁡ − ln ⁡ ln ⁡ − ln ⁡ II is 1 when GNI per capita is $75,000 and 0 when GNI per capita is $100. Finally, the HDI is the mean of the previous three normalized indices, HDI = LEI ⋅ EI ⋅ II3. Standard of living, as indicated by the logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. This methodology was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report, the formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme. The 2016 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on March 21,2017, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2015 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data. Countries in the top quartile of HDI with a missing IHDI, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The 2015 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on December 14,2015, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2014 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. Note, The green arrows, red arrows, and blue dashes represent changes in rank, the rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data

30.
ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency

31.
Western European Time
–
Western European Time is a time zone covering parts of western and northwestern Europe. WEST is called British Summer Time in the UK and is known as Irish Standard Time in Ireland. Conversely, Iceland and eastern Greenland are included although both are west of 7. 5°W, in September 2013, a Spanish parliamentary committee recommended switching to WET, a move being considered by MPs. However, the German occupation switched France to German time, two other occupied territories, Belgium and the Netherlands, did the same, and Spain also switched to CET in solidarity with Germany under the orders of General Franco. In the United Kingdom, from 1940 to 1945 British Summer Time was used in winters, between 18 February 1968 and 31 October 1971, BST was used all year round. In Ireland, from 1940 to 1946 Irish Summer Time was used all year round, between 18 February 1968 and 31 October 1971, Irish Standard Time was used all year round. In Portugal, CET was used in the mainland from 1966 to 1976, the autonomous region of the Azores used WET from 1992 to 1993. Iceland Mykines, Faroe Islands Western Ireland Western Portugal Madeira Canary Islands These areas are located between 7°30′ W and 22°30′ W Areas using UTC+1, See Central European Time

32.
Coordinated Universal Time
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Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead

33.
Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year

34.
Western European Summer Time
–
Western European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme,1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Also sometimes erroneously referred to as Irish Summer Time, the scheme runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October each year. At both the start and end of the schemes, clock changes take place at 01,00 UTC, during the winter, Greenwich Mean Time is used. The asymmetry reflects temperature more than the length of daylight, Ireland observes Standard Time during the summer months and changes to UTC+0 in winter. As Irelands winter time period begins on the last Sunday in October and finishes on the last Sunday in March, the result is the same as if it observed summer time. The following countries and territories use Western European Summer Time during the summer, starting in 1916, the dates for the beginning and end of BST each year were mandated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In February 2002, the Summer Time Order 2002 changed the dates and times to match European rules for moving to, note, Until 1 October 1916 time in all of Ireland was based on Dublin Mean Time, GMT −25 minutes. BBC News report, Tundra time call in clocks debate, UK Government Report, Overview of the pros and cons of British Summer Time

35.
Right- and left-hand traffic
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This is so fundamental to traffic flow that it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. About two-thirds of the population use RHT, with the remaining 76 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the worlds area, in the early 1900s some countries including Canada, Spain, and Brazil had different rules in different parts of the country. During the 1900s many countries standardised within their jurisdictions, and changed from LHT to RHT, in 1919,104 of the worlds territories were LHT and an equal number were RHT. From 1919 to 1986,34 of the LHT territories switched to RHT, many of the countries with LHT are former British colonies in the Caribbean, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Mozambique, Suriname, East Timor, in Europe, only four countries still drive on the left, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, all of which are islands. Nearly all countries use one side or the other throughout their entire territory, most exceptions are due to historical considerations and involve islands with no road connection to the main part of a country. China is RHT except the Special Administrative Regions of China of Hong Kong, the United States is RHT except the United States Virgin Islands. The United Kingdom is LHT, but its overseas territories of Gibraltar, according to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, water traffic is RHT. For aircraft the US Federal Aviation Regulations provide for passing on the right, light rail vehicles generally operate on the same side as other road traffic in the country. Many countries use RHT for automobiles but LHT for trains, often because of the influence of the British on early railway systems, in some countries rail traffic remained LHT after automobile traffic switched to RHT, for example in China, Brazil, and Argentina. However, France, Belgium, and Switzerland have used RHT for automobiles since their introduction, there is no technical reason to prefer one side over the other. Ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman troops kept to the left when marching, in 1998, archaeologists found a well-preserved double track leading to a Roman quarry near Swindon. The first reference in English law to an order for LHT was in 1756, northcote Parkinson, believed that ancient travellers on horseback or on foot generally kept to the left, since most people were right handed. If two men riding on horseback were to start a fight, each would edge toward the left, in the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII directed pilgrims to keep left. In the late 1700s, traffic in the United States was RHT based on use of large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons had no seat, so a postilion sat on the left rear horse. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the wheels of oncoming wagons, in France, traditionally foot traffic had kept right, while carriage traffic kept left

36.
.fo
–
. fo is the country code top-level domain for the Faroe Islands. The. fo domain was operated by UNI-C, the Danish University Network organisation until June 1997 and it then passed under the control of Tele2 DK, who had bought the activities of UNI-C as part of a privatisation. In July 1998, the operation was handed to nic. fo as a gesture of good will -, Type B registrations are possible if you do not hold a matching trademark

37.
Olaf II of Denmark
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Olaf II Haakonsson was King of Denmark as Olaf II and King of Norway as Olaf IV. Olaf was son of King Haakon VI of Norway and the grandson of King Magnus IV of Sweden. His mother was Queen Margaret I of Denmark which made him the grandson of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, in addition to his claim on the thrones of Denmark and later Norway, he was in the direct succession line to the throne of Sweden. He became King of Denmark when only five years old and later succeeded his father as King of Norway. When his grandfather Valdemar IV of Denmark died, Olaf was just five years old and he was proclaimed King of Denmark by a Danehof in Slagelse the following year. His mother, Queen Margaret, was to serve as regent due to his young age and his proclamation included the title true heir of Sweden added at his mothers insistence since his grandfather had been king of Sweden until forced to abdicate. Olaf was hailed as king in Scania, including the towns controlled by the Hanseatic league since the Treaty of Stralsund in 1370, Queen Margaret signed a coronation charter on behalf of Olaf who was too young to rule until he came of age at fifteen. In the charter Olaf agreed to meet with the Danehof at least once a year, Olaf became King of Norway on his fathers death in 1380. Even when Olaf reached his majority in 1385, his mother ruled through him, with his ascent to the Norwegian throne, Denmark and Norway were thus united in a personal union ruled from Denmark. Denmark and Norway would have the king, with the exception of short interregnums. Despite all the hope Margaret and the peoples of Denmark, Norway and he died unexpectedly in August,1387 at age 16. He was buried at Sorø Abbey on the Danish island of Zealand where also his grandfather and, rumors immediately arose that Olaf had been poisoned which gave rise to many years later to the story of False Olaf. Following his death at Falsterbohus, Olafs mother was proclaimed all powerful lady and mistress, Denmark had at the time no provision that enabled a woman to rule in her own right. The next year Norway proclaimed her Norways reigning queen, after the defeat and overthrow of King Albert in 1389 she was proclaimed all powerful lady of Sweden. On 13 June 1397, she was able to unite the three Scandinavian kingdoms in a union under one crown for her successor Eric of Pomerania by the Kalmar Union. After Olaf, no Norwegian king was to be born on Norwegian soil for more than 550 years, Olafs death was also the end of the male line of the Bjelbo dynasty in Sweden. Prussian historian Johan von Posilge reported that in 1402 a poor man came to the country. A group of merchants from Denmark asked him if he was not well known in Denmark, the merchants left to find another who had seen the king and returned with him. When the newcomer saw the one they took for Olaf, he cried out, many people especially in Norway didnt believe that Olaf had died

38.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese

39.
Danish krone
–
The krone is the official currency of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, introduced on 1 January 1875. Both the ISO code DKK and currency sign kr. are in use, the former precedes the value. The currency is referred to as the Danish crown in English. Historically, krone coins have been minted in Denmark since the 17th century, one krone is subdivided into 100 øre, the name øre possibly deriving from Latin aureus meaning gold coin. Altogether there are eleven denominations of the krone, with the smallest being the 50 øre coin, formerly there were more øre coins, but those were discontinued due to inflation. The krone is pegged to the euro via the ERM II, the oldest known Danish coin is a penny struck AD 825–840, but the earliest systematic minting produced the so-called korsmønter or cross coins minted by Harald Bluetooth in the late 10th century. Organised minting in Denmark was introduced on a larger scale by Canute the Great in the 1020s, for almost 1,000 years, Danish kings – with a few exceptions – have issued coins with their name, monogram and/or portrait. Taxes were sometimes imposed via the coinage, e. g. by the substitution of coins handed in by new coins handed out with a lower silver content. Danish coinage was based on the Carolingian silver standard. Periodically, the value of the minted coins was reduced. This was mainly done to generate income for the monarch and/or the state, as a result of the debasement, the public started to lose trust in the respective coins. Danish currency was overhauled several times in attempts to restore public trust in the coins, in 1619 a new currency was introduced in Denmark, the krone. One krone had the value of 1 1/2 Danish Rigsdaler Species accounting for 96 Kroneskillinger, later for 144 common Skillings, until the late 18th century, the krone was a denomination equal to 8 mark, a subunit of the Danish rigsdaler. A new krone was introduced as the currency of Denmark in January 1875 and it replaced the rigsdaler at a rate of 2 kroner =1 rigsdaler. This placed the krone on the standard at a rate of 2480 kroner =1 kilogram fine gold. The latter part of the 18th century and much of the 19th century saw expanding economic activity, consequently, banknotes were increasingly used instead of coins. The introduction of the new krone was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union, the parties to the union were the three Scandinavian countries, where the name was krone in Denmark and Norway and krona in Sweden, a word which in all three languages literally means crown. The three currencies were on the standard, with the krone/krona defined as 1⁄2480 of a kilogram of pure gold

40.
Banknote
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A banknote is a type of negotiable instrument known as a promissory note, made by a bank, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by banks, who were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks, national banknotes are generally legal tender, meaning that medium of payment is allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Historically, banks sought to ensure that they could always pay customers in coins when they presented banknotes for payment and this practice of backing notes with something of substance is the basis for the history of central banks backing their currencies in gold or silver. Today, most national currencies have no backing in precious metals or commodities and have value only by fiat, with the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values. The idea of using a durable light-weight substance as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC, the first known banknote was first developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, during the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 13th century by such as Marco Polo. Counterfeiting, the forgery of banknotes, is an inherent challenge in issuing currency and it is countered by anticounterfeiting measures in the printing of banknotes. Fighting the counterfeiting of banknotes and cheques has been a driver of security printing methods development in recent centuries. Paper currency first developed in the Tang Dynasty China during the 7th century, although true paper money did not appear until the 11th century, the usage of paper currency later spread throughout the Mongol Empire. European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe during the 13th century, napoleon issued paper banknotes in the early 1800s. Paper money originated in two forms, drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and bills, the perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals, Banknotes were seen as essentially an I. O. U. or promissory note, a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation. With the gradual removal of precious metals from the system, banknotes evolved to represent credit money. Notes or bills were referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a note drawn by Lord X for £100 which becomes due in 3 months time. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle

Fair Isle
–
Fair Isle is an island in northern Scotland, belonging to the Shetland island group, lying around halfway between mainland Shetland and the Orkney islands. It is known for its observatory and a traditional style of knitting. Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, Fair Isle is 4.8 km long and 2.4 km wide. It has an area

Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a

1.
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

Faroese language
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It is one of five languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn and Greenlandic Norse. Around 900, the language spoken in the Faroes was Old Norse, however, many of the settlers were not from Scandinavia, but descendants of Norse settlers in the Irish Sea region. In ad

1.
The Sheep letter (Faroese: Seyðabrævið) is the oldest surviving document of the Faroe Islands. Written in 1298 in Old Norse, it contains some words and expressions believed to be especially Faroese.

2.
Old West Norse dialect

3.
The Famjin Stone, a Faroese runestone

Danish language
–
There are also minor Danish-speaking communities in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their home language. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, until

1.
The first page of the Jutlandic Law originally from 1241 in Codex Holmiensis, copied in 1350. The first sentence is: " Mædh logh skal land byggas " "With law the land shall be built".

2.
Learn Danish banner in Flensburg, Germany where it is an officially recognized regional language

Flag of Faroe Islands
–
The flag of the Faroe Islands is an offset cross, representing Christianity. It is similar in design to other Nordic flags – a tradition set by the Dannebrog of Denmark, the flag is called Merkið, which means the banner or the mark. It resembles the flags of neighbouring Norway and Iceland, the design of the flag incorporates a red Nordic cross, wh

1.
The original flag now hangs in the church of Fámjin

2.
Faroe Islands

3.
A picture of the old flag.

4.
Merkið at Funningur, Eysturoy

Coat of arms of Faroe Islands
–
The coat of arms of the Faroe Islands first appears on one of the medieval chairs in Kirkjubøur from around the 15th century. It depicts a silver ram passant with golden hooves and horns on an azure shield, later uses show a ram in a seal used by the Løgrættumenn, members of the Old Faroese law Court, the Løgting. In 1948, the coat of arms came int

1.
Coat of arms at the Faroese Embassy in Copenhagen

2.
Modern coat of arms, depicting a Veðrur

Northern Europe
–
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. However, narrower definitions may also be used based on geographical factors, such as climate. Greenland, geographically a part of North America, is politically a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, while Northern Europe overlaps with most of Northwestern Europe, north-Central Europe, and Northe

1.
A map of northern Europe after Ptolemy

2.
A satellite photograph of northern Europe

3.
A Dutch map of northern Europe, 1601

4.
Typical landscape of Northern Europe

Kingdom of Denmark
–
The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union wa

1.
The gilded side of the Trundholm sun chariot dating from the Nordic Bronze Age.

2.
Flag

3.
The Ladby ship, the largest ship burial found in Denmark.

4.
Larger of the two Jelling stones, raised by Harald Bluetooth.

Greenland
–
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are

1.
Kingittorsuaq Runestone from Kingittorsuaq Island (Middle ages).

2.
Flag

3.
The last written records of the Norse Greenlanders are of a marriage in 1408 in the church of Hvalsey —today the best-preserved Nordic ruins in Greenland.

4.
A 1747 map based on Egede's descriptions and misconceptions.

Denmark
–
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of

1.
The gilded side of the Trundholm sun chariot dating from the Nordic Bronze Age.

2.
Flag

3.
The Ladby ship, the largest ship burial found in Denmark.

4.
Larger of the two Jelling stones, raised by Harald Bluetooth.

Ethnic groups
–
An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into ano

1.
Before the 1970s, the Korowai people of Papua were an uncontacted people. Their population numbers no more than 3,000.

2.
The Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of Northern Iraq.

3.
Some European ethnic groups, such as Basque people, do not constitute a majority in any one country.

Faroe Islanders
–
Faroese people are a Germanic ethnic group and nation native to the Faroe Islands. The Faroese are of mixed Norse and Gaelic origins, about 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countries, particularly in Denmark, Iceland and Norway. Most Faroese are citizens of the Kingdom of Denmark, in which, the Faroese language is one of the North Germanic langu

Church of the Faroe Islands
–
The Church of the Faroe Islands is one of the smallest of the worlds state churches. Prior to its becoming independent on 29 July 2007, it had been a diocese of the Church of Denmark, about 81. 6% of the Faroe Islanders belong to the state church. Other churches in the Faroe Islands include the Plymouth Brethren and the Catholic Church, according t

3.
Faroese clergymen played a major part in the National awakening and language conflict, which was a conflict within Faroese society rather than with the Danish.

Demonym
–
A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a mem

1.
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has not adopted the term "demonyn" for these adjectives and nouns

Danish Realm
–
The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union wa

1.
Tinganes, in the capital Tórshavn, is the location of the Faroese Home Government.

2.
The Unity of the Realm on the Globe. (dark green)

Parliamentary system
–
In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a different person from the head of government. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, eventually these councils have slowly evolved into the modern Parliamentary system. The first parliaments date back

1.
The Palace of Westminster in London, United Kingdom. The Westminster system originates from the British Houses of Parliament.

3.
Statue of President Nelson Mandela of South Africa in Parliament Square, London

4.
Parliament of Canada

Constitutional monarchy
–
A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign exercises their authorities in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution. A constitutional monarchy may refer to a system in which the acts as a non-party political head of state under the constitution. Political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, paraphrasing Thomas Macaulay,

1.
Constitutional monarchies with representative parliamentary systems are shown in green. Other constitutional monarchies are shown in light green.

Monarchy of Denmark
–
The Monarchy of Denmark, colloquially known as the Danish Monarchy, is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes not only Denmark, but the regions of Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark were already consolidated in the late 8th century, originally an elective monarchy, it became hereditary only

1.
Queen of Denmark

2.
Royal coat of arms of Denmark

3.
One of the two Jelling stones, attesting to Harald Bluetooth's unification and Christianization of Denmark.

4.
Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark

Margrethe II of Denmark
–
Margrethe II is the Queen of Denmark. She is also the authority of the Church of Denmark. Born into the House of Glücksburg, a house with origins in Northern Germany, she was the eldest child of Frederick IX of Denmark. She succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972, having had become heir presumptive to her father in 1953, on her acces

Aksel V. Johannesen
–
Aksel Vilhelmsson Johannesen is a Faroese lawyer and politician for the Social Democratic Party. He is the current prime minister of the Faroe Islands, at the Faroese general election,2008 Aksel Johannesen was the partys 1st suppleant to the Løgting, and sometimes he took seat in the parliament, especially for Andrias Petersen. He became minister o

1.
Aksel V. Johannesen, 2015

Norwegian Empire
–
To the North, Norway also bordered extensive tax territories on the mainland. As one of the colonial powers of Europe, Norway, whose expansionalism starts from the very foundation of the Kingdom in 872. During this period of about 450 years, Norway was an influential European power both intellectually and militarily, the Norwegians also established

1.
Norway at its greatest extent ca. 1265

Treaty of Kiel
–
Specifically excluded from the exchange were the Norwegian dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which remained in the union with Denmark. Norway unsuccessfully contested the Danish claim to all of Greenland in the East Greenland case of 1931–1933, however, not all provisions of the treaty would come into force. Norway declared

1.
Jean Baptiste Bernadotte

2.
Frederick VI of Denmark (left) and George III of the United Kingdom

Demographics of Faroe Islands
–
The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of North Germanic descent. Ethnic Faroese are, in terms, among the most homogenous groups ever found. Recent DNA analysis have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian, the studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish / Irish. Of t

1.
Faroese student in national costume.

List of countries and dependencies by population
–
This is a list of countries and dependent territories by population. For instance, the United Kingdom is considered as a single entity while the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are considered separately, in addition, this list includes certain states with limited recognition not found in ISO 3166-1. The population figures do

1.
A map of world population in 2014

Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units e

1.
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order

Purchasing power parity
–
Observed deviations of the exchange rate from purchasing power parity are measured by deviations of the real exchange rate from its PPP value of 1. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of exchange rates. For example, suppose that two countries produce the same amounts of goods as each

1.
Big Mac hamburgers, like this one from Japan, are similar worldwide.

2.
GDP Per capita by countries in 2014, calculated using PPP exchange rates, based on IMF data.

Gini coefficient
–
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nations residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality. It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini, the Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribut

1.
Graphical representation of the Gini coefficient The graph shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area marked A divided by the sum of the areas marked A and B, that is, Gini = A / (A + B). It is also equal to 2* A due to the fact that A + B = 0.5 (since the axes scale from 0 to 1).

List of countries by income equality
–
This is a list of countries or dependencies by income inequality metrics, including Gini coefficients. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality and 1 corresponds with perfect inequality, income distribution can vary greatly from wealth distribution in a country. Income from black market activity is

Human Development Index
–
The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Developme

1.
Mahbub ul Haq

2.
Amartya Sen

ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code

1.
An airline ticket showing the price in the ISO 4217 code " EUR " (bottom left) and not the currency sign €

2.
A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency.

Western European Time
–
Western European Time is a time zone covering parts of western and northwestern Europe. WEST is called British Summer Time in the UK and is known as Irish Standard Time in Ireland. Conversely, Iceland and eastern Greenland are included although both are west of 7. 5°W, in September 2013, a Spanish parliamentary committee recommended switching to WE

1.
light blue

Coordinated Universal Time
–
Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was i

1.
Key concepts

2.
World map of current time zones

Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a

4.
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.

Western European Summer Time
–
Western European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme,1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Also sometimes erroneously referred to as Irish Summer Time, the scheme runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October each year. At both the start and end of the schemes, clock changes take place at 01,00 UTC, during t

1.
light blue

Right- and left-hand traffic
–
This is so fundamental to traffic flow that it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. About two-thirds of the population use RHT, with the remaining 76 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the worlds area, in the early 1900s some countries including Canada, Spain, and Brazil had differe

1.
A sign on Australia 's Great Ocean Road reminding foreign motorists to keep left. Such signs are placed at the exit of parking areas associated with scenic views, where other road traffic may at times be sparse.

2.
Right-hand traffic

3.
One of many road signs in the British county of Kent placed on the right-hand side of the road.

4.
The change of traffic directions at the Laos–Thai border takes place on Lao territory just off the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge.

.fo
–
. fo is the country code top-level domain for the Faroe Islands. The. fo domain was operated by UNI-C, the Danish University Network organisation until June 1997 and it then passed under the control of Tele2 DK, who had bought the activities of UNI-C as part of a privatisation. In July 1998, the operation was handed to nic. fo as a gesture of good

1.
.fo

Olaf II of Denmark
–
Olaf II Haakonsson was King of Denmark as Olaf II and King of Norway as Olaf IV. Olaf was son of King Haakon VI of Norway and the grandson of King Magnus IV of Sweden. His mother was Queen Margaret I of Denmark which made him the grandson of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, in addition to his claim on the thrones of Denmark and later Norway, he was in

1.
Olaf II depicted on the Kronborg Tapestries (Kronborg Castle)

2.
Olaf's grave monument at Sorø

3.
Olaf's royal seal, with the shield of Norway (left) and Denmark (right).

Iceland
–
Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plate

1.
Norsemen Landing in Iceland – a 19th Century depiction by Oscar Wergeland.

Danish krone
–
The krone is the official currency of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, introduced on 1 January 1875. Both the ISO code DKK and currency sign kr. are in use, the former precedes the value. The currency is referred to as the Danish crown in English. Historically, krone coins have been minted in Denmark since the 17th century, one krone is su

1.
1000 kroner banknote

3.
Two golden 20 kr coins from the Scandinavian Monetary Union, with identical weight and composition. The coin to the left is Swedish and the right one is Danish.

4.
A tin - bronze 50-øre coin

Banknote
–
A banknote is a type of negotiable instrument known as a promissory note, made by a bank, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by banks, who were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the

1.
Banknotes with a face value of 5000 of different currencies.

2.
The current banknotes of the Swiss franc series possess at least eighteen security features. As of 2015, the Swiss 1000-franc banknote is the world's highest value currently-issued banknote, followed by the Singapore 1000-dollar note and the 500 euro note.

1.
The Vestfjorden with the mountains of the Lofoten archipelago seen from Løvøy Island in Steigen. Vågakaillen (942 m) is the taller of the two peaks in the centre of the image.

2.
Norwegian Sea, surrounded by shallower seas to the south (North Sea) and northeast (Barents Sea). The white dot near the centre is Jan Mayen, and the dot between Spitsbergen (large island to the north) and Norway is Bear Island.

1.
Part of an Ordnance Survey map, published 1952. The grid lines are at one kilometre intervals giving each square an area of one square kilometre. The map shows that the area of the island is about two square kilometres.

2.
Map of Delft, Netherlands dated 1659. The walls enclosed an area of about 1 square kilometre

1.
2005 Faroese stamp commemorating the friendly wartime relations between British soldiers and the Faroese population

2.
Minnisvarðin, in honour of the 210 men who died at sea during World War II. Erected in 1956, made by Kaare Orud (Norwegian artist), Lamhauge and Waagstein, Jacob Simonsen, the stoneplates were made by the Føroya Mekaniski Grótídnaður.

3.
British naval gun from World War II at Skansin fortress, Tórshavn

4.
The gravestone of the Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot Flying Officer H.J.G. Haeusler, aged 24, near Vágar Airport